About

A blog offering critical perspectives on police, security, crime, law and punishment around the world. We get our name from the Ancient Greek words anthropos (human) and politeia (the business of running the polis, The City or politics; from which we get the word “police”).

♫ Duh duh duh duh ♫ The editors of Anthropoliteia would like to introduce yet another new regular feature: DragNet. An addition to our “Round Ups” series, DragNet will offer monthly highlights of the English-language academic blogosphere for topics related to policing, security, crime and punishment around the world. We’re thrilled to have Kristin Castner serving as the Section Editor and lead author for the feature. ♫ Duh duh duh duh DUH ♫

Around the web this month were noteworthy posts dealing with issues of surveillance, race, incarceration and political transformation.

Posts about surveillance expose the need to define and enforce boundaries at both the state and local levels. Although government agencies regularly receive public attention about their surveillance practices, other articles highlight the fact that these aren’t the only entities “watching” civilians. Digital Journal, for example, details the ways Bank of America kept tabs on the activity of Occupy movement members. As NPR’s post about social media surveillance insinuates, we need to start talking about who should have access to what information, and under which circumstances. Mother Jones invites you to reflect upon whether we should be “excited” about the State Department’s decision to “troll for terrorists” on social media. Think Progress considers instances where the focal subject of surveillance flips from citizens to that of officers.

And lastly (but importantly), Anthropoliteia launched new sections in March (besides DragNet of course!): In the Journals, Dossiers and Dispatches. Plan to visit In the Journals on a quarterly basis for the latest scoop on all things Anthropoliteia-focused. A new section editor, David Thompson, will be in charge of managing the Journals series. Notable Dossiers from March included a three-part series about policing and protesting in Taiwan, authored by our own Jeff Martin. We also featured coverage of the recent political developments in Venezuela, penned by our special guest poster Rebecca Hansen. From Dispatches, Charlie Hahn contemplates the impact of everyday encounters with mass surveillance as he navigates through Oakland, CA.

As always, we welcome your feedback. If you have any suggestions for sites we should be keeping tabs on for this feature, or if you want to call our attention to a specific post or blog, send an email to anthropoliteia@gmail.com with the words “DragNet” in the subject header.